Locating Parents

Information Available for Location of Parents

The child support office, with due process and security safeguards, has access to information from many sources, including:

Credit reporting agency records

Current and past employers

Current and past utility companies

Department of Defense

Department of Natural Resource

Department of Veteran's Affairs

Financial institution, including asset and liability data

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Labor unions

Law enforcement agencies, parole, and probation offices

Minnesota Department of Revenue

Motor vehicle registration and driver's license records

Personal property records

Public assistance and food stamp records

Reemployment / unemployment records

Social Security Administration

Social services records

State licensing boards

United States Postal Service

Vital records

Information Required for a Parent Search

The Social Security number and any recent employer's name and address are the most helpful information. Also helpful are the names, addresses, and phone numbers of relatives, friends, or former employers who might know where he / she works or lives. Unions and local organizations, including professional organizations, might also have information.

Social Security Numbers

Social Security numbers are now required on applications for professional licenses, driver's licenses, occupational and recreational licenses, and marriage licenses, on divorce records, child support orders, and paternity determinations, and on death records.

If none of these is available, or the Social Security number was not yet required when the document was issued, the child support office can subpoena information about bank accounts, insurance policies, credit cards, pay slips, or income tax returns. If you and the other parent filed a joint federal income tax return in the last three years, the child support office can get the Social Security number from the IRS.

The child support office may be able to get the Social Security number with at least three of the following pieces of information:

The parent's name

Place of birth

Date of birth

His / her father's name

His / her mother's maiden name

Current Work or Home Addresses

The child support office will verify home and work addresses, and take the next appropriate action on the case, to establish paternity or a child support order, or enforce and existing support order.

In most cases, to establish the paternity of a child, to obtain an order for support, and to enforce that order, the child support office must know where the other parent lives or works. If an obligee does not know the obligor's address, the child support office can try to find it. The most important information needed to locate a parent is their Social Security number.

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General Number651-430-6455

To Apply for Child Support ServicesPhone: 651-430-6615Fax: 651-430-6636